Thursday, October 29, 2009 WASHINGTON: The White House has said that it has no plans to quit its operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan in spite of Wednesday's blast in a Peshawar bazaar.Recent reports had suggested that a rapid increase in attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan might force the Obama administration to leave the country, but the White House said that US troops would stay put.“The president began the meetings on the assessment with saying we were not leaving Afghanistan. We understand that we have a role to play in ensuring stability in the region, which is why the president is taking his time to get this policy right,” a local newspaper quoted Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary, as saying.Gibbs also said President Obama will meet US military chiefs on Friday to review military strategy in Afghanistan. “This is a meeting requested by the president to see the Joint Chiefs and to have a chance to talk to them and to other service branches about the ongoing assessment in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he added.Earlier, Obama had held a meeting with his top advisers on the region to have a new policy to confront Taliban and Al Qaeda militants threatening the Governments of both countries. It was also attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is currently in Pakistan on a three-day official visit.Media reports had speculated that the consultations might lead to the announcement of a timeline for withdrawing US troops from the region.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in
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